RESEARCH OBJECTIVES: A prototype ultrafast, automatic, laser scanner microscope will be designed, fabricated and tested to scan a 4 cm2 specimen at 0.5 micron resolution in one minute at a digital data stream rate of 64 MHz. It will be designed for ultimate employment by automated clinical cytology and hematology laboratories, thus providing them with a new and powerful clinical tool. Investigations of several scanning techniques through study and experimentation during the first year will define an approach, which will result in a breadboard apparatus to be fabricated and tested during the second year. The results of this work will lead to the design and fabrication of a prototype apparatus during the third year. The prototype will be debugged and tested with clinical samples during the fourth and fifth years. During the fifth year, the specifications for an operational system that can be built by a subcontractor to NIH for clinical testing, including software development, will be delivered, along with delivery of the prototype apparatus. Long range operational goals are to couple rapid data acquisition with essentially real time data processing and analysis. Such a system is seen as a basis for quantizing and objectively assessing clinical cytology and histology.